David Warner will pay a high price for involvement in cheating scandal

The housing commission kid, who once earned $12 an hour packing shelves, made it big but couldn’t make it last.

He was set to become Australian cricket’s first $6 million-a-year man, on the back of a queue of companies wanting to endorse him, a lucrative new salary package and a $2.4 million Indian Premier League contract.

But the Midas touch that has built David Warner a personal fortune, including a $10 million property portfolio, appears to have deserted him.

In a rare interview about his personal finances just over two years ago, Warner confided: “My financial adviser told me: ‘If you have to work after cricket, I haven’t done my job properly’.”

More on Warner’s financial portfolio later, but three days can be a long time in cricket. Warner’s dream of making tens of millions in coming years are evaporating with every passing hour in the wake of the Cape Town ball-tampering scandal on the weekend.

Already, the signs are bad.

The biggest single financial cost of suspension to Warner will be the loss of his Indian Premier League contract with the Sunrisers Hyderabad, where he was due to be captain. Insiders say Cricket Australia is required to give Warner a “no objection” certificate to allow him to play in the IPL.

In the absence of this, he will not be able to make himself available to play at all, meaning the franchise is likely to have a strong argument that it does not need to pay any part of the $2.4m.

 

But that is just the start. His personal sponsorships also look to be in jeopardy. A long-term personal sponsor of Warner, electronics group LG — which chose to be involved with Warner rather than Cricket Australia as a whole — pointedly refused to back one of the company’s key local ambassadors yesterday.

“As a sponsor of David Warner, we are keeping a close eye on … the ongoing response from Cricket Australia, which will inform actions regarding our partnership,” a spokeswoman said. “Our ambassadorships are constantly under review so we are able to make the best decisions for our customers, employees and stakeholders. As a brand that sets out to improve the everyday lives of Australians, our focus is on ensuring our partnerships reflect those values, and that is our first priority.”

Other personal sponsors, which include Asics and bat-maker Gray-Nicolls, are also likely to take their cue from the Cricket Australia decision.

Another of Warner’s personal sponsors, Milo, quietly let its partnership go in recent months. A spokeswoman said: “We are moving in a different direction. It’s not a reflection on David Warner or Cricket Australia.”

His partnership with the Nine Network — which pays him a retainer to appear on some of the network’s shows — is unlikely to change, at least in the short term, according to insiders.

Meanwhile, a long-term suspension would cost Warner financially just through his inability to play for Australia. Warner has over the past few years made a total of about $2m a year from his Cricket Australia contract, once bonuses are added to his base salary of about $900,000 a year.

But Warner was the key face of the bitter dispute with the governing body last year, which ultimately saw a new pay deal struck with the Australian Cricketers Association to give players a bigger share of earnings. Insiders believe Warner is a key beneficiary of the deal as Australian vice-captain. His pay was expected to rise to as much as $2.5m a year.

But because a key part of his bonuses are dependent on Warner being on the field and fulfilling his marketing commitments as a key ambassador for the game, he stands to lose most of this bonus package.

David Warner and wife Candice. Picture: Andrew Tauber

It is understood Australian players have been paid match fees of $14,000 for each Test, $7000 for each one-day international and $5000 for each T20 international.

According to the International Cricket Council’s Future Tours Program, Australia is scheduled to play 12 Tests, 29 ODIs and seven T20s over the next year, which would be worth more than $400,000 in match fees.

There are also large performance bonuses in both individual matches and tournaments. Every Australian member of the ODI squad that won the World Cup in Melbourne received about $350,000. There are also bonuses paid in normal matches for milestones, such as five-wicket hauls and centuries scored.

GRAPHIC: The (nearly) $6m man

It is these sorts of bonuses that have allowed Warner to build up a considerable property portfolio.

Not bad for a guy who grew up in the working-class suburb of Matraville, on the southern side of Sydney’s eastern suburbs, and once earned $12 an hour packing shelves at Woolworths.

He graduated from a housing commission childhood but has never forgotten his roots, and often returns to the local RSL club for a beer with his father.

Parents Howard and Lorraine still live in the area.

In an interview with this journalist two years ago, Warner outlined his passion for property ownership. “You can’t go wrong on bricks and mortar,” he said. “The hard thing … is that sometimes you’ve got to gain on someone else’s loss.”

He flipped a luxury mansion in Coogee in Sydney’s east for $7.05m in 2016, making him a quick $800,000 profit. Warner and his wife, Candice, have since built a portfolio of six properties, five in his chosen beachside suburb of Maroubra in Sydney’s southeast, for which he has paid a total of $9.75 million.

The couple’s future home in Maroubra’s Lurline Bay cost him $3.9m, with the house now bulldozed amid plans for a five-storey mansion that will cost another $4m to build.

There are also substantial shareholdings. Warner confided two years ago he had shareholdings in 16 companies.

The scandal could also dent the popularity of Warner’s highly successful kids’ book series, the Kaboom Kid (for which he receives a royalty on every book sold), and the Kaboom brand, which he has trademarked for toys, clothing, sporting goods and food products, such as energy bars and protein shakes. The books are based on Warner’s childhood adventures.

The timing may be entirely coincidental, but some editions of the Kaboom Kid were on sale yesterday — listed as “clearance” items at the ABC Shop, with 50 per cent discounts on offer.